


Ballet Slippers

by earth_to_sonia



Category: The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Ballet, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Maybe idk yet - Freeform, POV Achilles (Song of Achilles), Relationship(s), Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:40:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29284698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earth_to_sonia/pseuds/earth_to_sonia
Summary: Ballet School AU -in which Patroclus is one of the students at Thetis’ Dance School and Achilles has to film him for a college class in Cinematography
Relationships: Achilles & Patroclus (Song of Achilles), Achilles/Patroclus (Song of Achilles)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 28
Collections: Achilles and Patroclus





	1. Cinematography 101

Achilles awoke with the sun; he always did no matter what.The sunlight streaming through the window was pleasant and warm. It slipped through the gap in the curtains and filled the room with a hazy golden glow.

As he sat up, his body protested in pain. He had made the mistake of trying to beat his personal running record the night before and as he stood the muscles in his legs throbbed painfully.

Pulling on a tight fitting shirt and some trousers he had laid out the night before he snuck out of the room trying not to disturb his roommate - Odysseus - who was sleeping peacefully.

He jogged all the way to his Cinematography class trying to shake off the ache in his legs. He passed multiple freshman standing in the halls and turned down the hallway. He slowed down to a brisk walk and checked his phone for the time - Professor Chiron hated lateness with a passion and he did not want to be on the receiving end off one of his lectures.

Pushing open the doors he took a seat at the back and muttered a quiet hello to Ajax who was sitting next to him. Ajax nodded his head in acknowledgement as the doors burst open and Professor Chiron strode in. The class immediately fell silent and Achilles pulled out his laptop to take notes.

“Right, good morning everyone - nice to see that you’re all here on time. Today we will be focusing on adverts and marketing. Adverts are essential to cinematography and many directors have to start small and adverts are the way to do that. So this week you are all going to create an advert for a local business.” An excited murmur echoed round the class and Achilles grinned happily. This was a lot more fun than all the practical/research elements they had been focusing on lately.

“I have assigned each of you to different businesses around the area and since there aren’t that many of you everyone will get to work by themselves.” Chiron paused to let everyone process what he was saying before continuing with - “This project will be 15% of your grade this semester so don’t mess it up. I have emailed each of you a list of important sources and people to talk to about your business. If you have any questions please feel free to ask and that’s it.” 

Achilles quickly scrolled through his email until he found the message from Professor Chiron.

Dear Achilles,

For your end of semester project you will be creating an advert for New York’s prestigious Cedar Wood ballet school. You will be making an advert for the winter production of the nutcracker. 

I would suggest getting close to the principal dancers who play the parts of Clara and The Nutcracker respectively. You could meet up with them at the annual charity gala held at the town hall tonight from 7pm - 12pm.

Attached below is a list of requirements and the mark scheme I will be using to grade this project.  
Please refrain from asking your mother for any help since the fact she is the director of the school gives you a rather large advantage over the rest of the class.

Achilles groaned he didn’t mind ballet but he definitely didn’t want to spend any more time with his mother than he already had to and considering she was the director of Cedar Wood Ballet School avoiding her would be almost inevitable


	2. The Annual Ballet Charity Gala

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm still not sure I didn't hallucinate the conversation while overdosing on his pheromones."  
> ― Sylvia Day

The town hall was filled to the brim with glamorous dancers and colorful business men. Everyone was dressed to impress in their best clothes and ridiculous amounts of jewelry, singling out the magnificently rich from the sea of finery that was the annual ballet charity gala. But no one could mistake that Thetis Pelides was the most influential in the room. She stood amongst  
a crowd of fawning dancers and successful choreographers at the top of a balcony, looking down at all of her students, watching them like a hawk. 

Most of her attention though, was on Patroclus. She had to make sure everything was going smoothly with her principal dancers before relaxing and having a drink or two.

Patroclus shivered under her gaze. He turned so his back was facing towards her and took another sip of his drink. If he was going to last through the whole night he could guarantee he wouldn’t be sober by the end of it. 

Down the hall near the bathroom a group of dancers had collected swarming around Briseis like a group of moths circling a lightbulb. Briseis was wearing an elegant blue dress that she had Patroclus had picked out earlier that day. It fit her nicely and showed off her sleek frame and muscles.

She stood next to an awestruck deidamia who was too busy talking animatedly to the crowd surrounding her to notice that half the men at the party were gazing at her with lustful looks in their eyes. Briseis stood next to her like a bodyguard seemingly daring them to come over and face her wrath.

Patroclus sighed fondly and wondered if he should go over and say hello. He turned to see if Thetis was watching him only to realise that she was no longer standing in her place of honour on the balcony and had instead wandered off down the backstairs and out the door.

Patroclus frowned, Thetis was never one to abandon a party but he wasn’t going to question her motives. He was far too afraid of her for that.

Making his way through the crowd he sauntered towards Briseis who spotted him immediately and gestured for him to come over.

He maneuvered through the group of girls muttering quiet “excuse me’s” as he went.

“Hi” he exclaimed, waving back as he reached Briseis’ side.

“Hello, are you enjoying the party.” Briseis asked earnestly, slinging an arm over his shoulder.

“Not really.” He paused for a second before continuing. “Do you have any idea where Thetis has gone? She’s been eyeing me like a hawk for the entire night and now she’s just disappeared. I keep thinking she’s gonna turn up behind me and start lecturing me about keeping up an image or something like that.”

“Haven’t you heard?” Deidamia giggled. “Her son’s coming to the party and he’s supposed to be very handsome.”

“Thetis has a son?” Patroclus ran a hand through his hair he had never expected someone like Thetis to have a son and she’d never mentioned him before

“Oh yes his name is Achilles, I think.” Deidamia continued as she gazed around the room longingly.

“Right and this — Achilles is coming here why?” Patroclus asked raising his glass to his lips

“I heard that he’s going to transfer to the ballet school.” Upon hearing this he nearly spat his drink all over Briseis.

“Excuse me.” He spluttered choking on his champagne. “Do you think he even does ballet?”

“Well we’re about to find out.” Deidamia squealed, straightening her dress. Patroclus spun round and stared at the balcony where Thetis had emerged followed by a boy who was probably the same age as him.

He seemed to resemble a model with his curly blonde hair and defined facial features. Achilles definitely resembled Thetis with his god like beauty but where Thetis was cold he was warm and all of sudden Patroclus thought that maybe tonight wouldn’t be so boring after all.


	3. A Wonderful Waltz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you. I could walk through my garden forever.” —Alfred Tennyson

Deidamia was the first to break the silence that Achilles Pelides had draped over their small group. 

“I’m going to go talk to him.” She declared smoothing out the non existent creases on her dress. 

“Good luck with that.” Patroclus murmured, taking another sip of his champagne. Achilles Pelides looked like the type of boy who would lead them on, sleep with them and then ditch perfectly nice girls like Deidamia.

Briseis seemed to be thinking the exact same thing because she was eyeing Achilles warily from across the room warily.

Achilles turned his head towards Achilles and Briseis as though he could sense their hospitality from across the room. Patroclus turned his head away in embarrassment as their eyes met while Briseis just kept glaring at him.

“Stop looking at him.” He hissed tugging at Briseis’ arm.

“Why? He’s staring at us and I’m not going to look away first.” 

“He’s Thetis’ son for god's sake he could probably have us kicked out of the academy if you so much as look at him the wrong way.” 

Briseis made a rather disgruntled noise and turned her back to Achilles and started ranting on about the hierarchy that was so often present at ballet schools. A speech Patroclus had heard many many times before.

He gazed inconspicuously at Deidamia who was now attempting to persuade Achilles to dance with her. Achilles shrugged and looked over at Patroclus once again. Cocking an eyebrow he turned back to Deidamia and nodded his head which resulted in her giddily dragging him to the dance floor.

Patroclus watched, mesmerised as they began to waltz around the room and he wondered if Achilles was in fact a ballerina or if he was just good at everything.

Briseis tugged on his sleeve motioning that they should join in and he gladly took her hand leading her towards the dance floor.

Placing one hand on her hip and one on her shoulder they danced around the room grinning like Cheshire cats.

“Can you see them?” Briseis hissed under her breath

“Yeah he’s looking at us again probably wondering why you keep glaring at him.” He joked 

Briseis laughed good heartedly and relaxed into his arms. They’re dancing slowed down at the music came to a halt and all of a sudden Patroclus felt someone tap him on the shoulder.


End file.
